The Fast Lane to Health

Just like an oil change for your car, fasting is essential periodic maintenance for your body. You’ve got to do it.

If you’re eating the Standard American Diet, full of processed food loaded with artificial ingredients; you’re putting toxins in your body faster than it can eliminate them. These unnatural chemical and mineral compounds are accumulating in all the tissues of your body, and have been for most of your life.

Over time these toxins accumulate inside you until there is a tipping point at which your body is so overloaded that essential systems and functions begin to break down.

This accumulation of toxins from processed food, more than any other source, is what contributes to disease.

This is why fasting was an important part of my anti-cancer regimen.

We all know food is the fuel for our bodies, but what most people don’t realize is that processed food is dirty fuel.
It is not “clean burning” and causes a lot of internal wear and tear over time.

Not only does your body convert food into energy, but it also uses approximately 1/3 of your energy to digest food.

Would you describe yourself as dependent on caffeine or sugar to get going or stay alert throughout the day?

If you said yes, you may be overeating for your metabolism; and if you’re consistently eating three or more “square” meals per day you may be suffering from a food-induced energy drain.

Ever felt the need to take a nap after a big meal? That’s what I’m talking about.

I discovered that eating breakfast really sapped my morning energy so I stopped doing it. Most mornings I just drink a glass of water or Veggie Juice. I usuallyeat some fruit around 10 am. I’ll have a sandwich or Giant Salad for lunch; aSmoothieor fruitfor an afternoon snack; and another Giant Saladwith some healthy carbs like quinoa, organic brown rice, Manna Bread, or a sweet potato for dinner.

A few times per week I’ll eat clean organic meat: grass fed beef, wild caught fish, or free-range chicken. I do eat other stuff too, but that’s in another post.

Anyway, back to fasting…

When you fast, digestion stops and your body basically “switches modes” from digestion mode to house cleaning mode; redirecting energy to where it is needed most.

Fasting happens every night when you sleep. Your body focuses on repair, regeneration, and detoxification. The next day when you eat, it’s called “Break-Fast”. Not eating for several days allows this process to continue uninterrupted; compounding the healing benefits.

One way you can improve your nightly regenerative sleep is to eat an early dinner before 7pm and eat nothing else all night until mid-morning or lunchtimethe following day. (Drinking veggie juice or caffeine free herbal tea before bed is fine.) This gives your body 12-16 hours per day to repair itself.

The Day of Rest: God instituted one day per week as a day of rest. Which most of us recognize as Sunday. Whether it’s sunday or not, I strongly recommend you have one day per week where you do nothing. Sleep in. Relax. Read. Take a long nap, and try some of the complementary activities listed below. This may be hard for some who really enjoy working, but your body needs a break. The less physical energy you exert, the more energy your body has to repair itself. Sunday is also a perfect day to fast while you rest, maximizing your body’s regenerative capability. If you eat an early dinner Saturday night and don’t eat again until Monday lunch, that’s a 40 hour fast!

Something else that happens when you fast is that you start burning fat for energy, so you should experience some weight loss. That’s one thing most people won’t complain about. :)

Expect to have low energy during a fast, not because you aren’t eating, but because your body has switched gears and is redirecting all available energy toward repairing itself. The less energy you consume, the more your body has to use in the healing process.

When you begin to detox, large quantities of toxins and dead bacteria are released into your body faster than it can get them out. This flood of toxins is going to make you feel bad, but only temporarily.
This is commonly referred to as the Healing Crisis or the Herxheimer Reaction.
So expect to feel worse before you feel better. Your body is trying to push toxins out anyway it can: in your sweat, mucus, pee, and poop. You will feel tired and weak and may experience headaches, nausea, irritability, and in severe cases vomiting, upset stomach, pimples, and flu-like symptoms.
The more toxic you are, the worse you’ll feel, but it’s a good thing. Don’t quit. You’ve got to be determined to power through. Trust me. In just a few days time your energy will return and you’ll feel amazing.
Consider taking a week off, or a long weekend with no commitments on the calendar to do your fast.
This is a time when it’s ok to be selfish. You’re working on you.
Just focus on relaxing and lounge around while your body does its thing.
Pray and meditate on healing verses from scripture. Watch some funny movies. Sleep alot.
Some complementary activities that will assist in the detox process are massage therapy followed by a mineral bath; visits to a sauna; rebounding; and frequent enemas or colonics to clean out toxins trapped in your colon. Yeah it’s gross, but if you don’t do it, the toxins can end up recirculating in your body, which makes you feel worse and limits the effectiveness of the fast.

The two basic liquid fasts are water fasts and juice fasts.

A straight water fast is the most powerful health changing thing you can do.
But I have to warn you that you will experience hunger like you never have before. Most of us have no idea what it feels like to go even one day without food. This will give you a whole new perspective on the poor and starving people in the world. But I should note that you’ll only really experience psychological food-additicion hunger and that will only be for a few days. Your stomach will shrink and your hunger will subside.

Fasting with Veggie Juice or doing The Master Cleanse is much easier as the juice helps curb your appetite and gives you energy. I recommend you do this first before attempting a water fast.

“How long should I fast?” 4-7 days is common. Some folks go for several weeks. The longer you go the more benefit you will get.
I usually let my body tell me when I need to start eating again.
This may sound funny but it’s true. The larger you are, the longer you can go.
I have a high metabolism and very low body fat so I can’t fast for more than 7-10 days.

Detoxing happens in phases: you’ll feel lousy the first few days, then you’ll feel great for a few days, then you may feel lousy again for a few more, then great again, and so on.
As you fast, your body will break down and use anything it can for energy.
If you were stranded in a cabin in the winter with no firewood, naturally you would burn the least important items first like chairs, tables etc. You aren’t going to throw your clothes and food on the fire. Your body is the same way. It will burn through what it identifies as the least essential tissue first, like fat and even tumors. All this will happen before your body experiences true starvation, which is the break down of vital organs and tissue.

Make sure that when you break a fast it is gradual with very small portions of fruit or veggies. Don’t go pig out.
Your shrunken stomach will not appreciate it.

Big Disclaimer: Please do not attempt a multi-day fast without reading a book on the subject first.
They will go into a lot more detail than I have here.

And your fast should also be done under “medical supervision”. If you take medications, you doctor needs to know what you’re doing.